Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has formally intervened in a United States federal court to block the public release of law enforcement records detailing past investigations into his financial affairs, according to court documents filed by his legal team.

The intervention centers on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by American transparency advocate Aaron Greenspan against multiple US intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Greenspan is seeking the unredacted release of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) full file on Tinubu, including internal Form 302 interview records dating back to 1992 and 1993.

In a 16-page motion submitted on August 28, 2026, attorneys Christopher W. Carmichael, Victor P. Henderson, and Oluwole O. Afolabi argued that releasing the unredacted documents would constitute an unwarranted invasion of the Nigerian president's personal privacy.

The defense team urged the court to uphold decisions by the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to withhold or heavily redact the requested files.

"Regardless of the prior disclosure in the forfeiture proceeding, Intervenor retains a privacy interest in potential disclosure of the investigative files sought by Plaintiff," Tinubu's legal counsel stated in the court filing.

The defense further asserted that the FOIA request amounts to an targeted probe rather than a legitimate public interest inquiry, writing that the plaintiff's filings "demonstrate that his singular focus is obtaining documents with Intervenor's 'name on them'."

President Tinubu has consistently denied all wrongdoing.

The records in question stem from a 1993 civil forfeiture proceeding in a Chicago federal court, where US authorities seized approximately $460,000 from bank accounts linked to Tinubu.

The funds were alleged to be connected to narcotics trafficking proceeds. The case was resolved through a compromise settlement without a formal admission of guilt, and Tinubu was permitted to retain other assets.

US privacy laws generally protect personal information contained within federal law enforcement files from public release under FOIA Exemption 7(C), unless the requester can demonstrate that the public interest in disclosure outweighs the individual's right to personal privacy.

ID